BLJ: A question I sometimes ask myself when I see a "holiness pretender" is whether the person knows he or she is pretending. When ministry reduces second blessing holiness to just trying your best and taking it by faith, or even worse in my opinion, seeing holiness as individual acts of consecration as opposed to a divine act of eradication of carnality, they perpetuate a church that will not reproduce and will not evangelize. The deceived become future deceivers.
THE DECEIVED BECOME DECEIVERS
All seekers of holiness who fail to "die out" to the carnality in their hearts, if they think they receive the blessing of holiness, they are fooled, and come through with a false experience and with their hearts as carnal as before. That is what may have happened to one of the best known television evangelists of our day. He seems to claim no deliverance whatsoever from his carnal nature or its manifestations. He appears not even to believe it is possible to do a very good job of suppressing his carnal traits which he calls his "weaknesses." He says, "Each and every one of us has some area of weakness we battle daily. Whether it be malice, envy, jealousy or temper, we find ourselves, time after time, going back to God and asking Him once again to forgive the same old thing."
We wonder what this man's holiness does do for him. He claims tremendous Holy Ghost power -- but what about purity? Peter said that when the Holy Spirit sanctified the Gentiles, their hearts were purified (Acts 15:9). Of what value is any gift or manifestation such as speaking in an unknown "tongue" without the work of heart-cleansing and purity?
This evangelist claims to have problems, even with malice, envy, jealousy, and temper every day! That certainly is not conforming to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). A carnal heart and a non-victorious life are no credit to God, or to His Holy Spirit, or to Christ, or to His Church. There are sinners out in the world who have never been saved who have a better record than that of battling with malice, envy, jealousy, and temper every day.
BLJ: If the pastor or evangelist does not testify to being entirely sanctified, they should become public seekers of holiness. Oh, how that would impact the congregation and encourage them also to seek holiness.
A carnally defeated life is an indignity to Christ and an insult to His precious Blood. The Word of God makes it clear: "...the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. " And again, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:7, 9). We are not supposed to sustain a polluted and corrupt heart while we name the Name of Christ, lest we misrepresent Him. Christ came to this world and shed His blood to fit us for life and heaven by cleansing us from all such carnal elements as malice, envy, jealousy, and temper. We must get rid of these wicked traits because they will not be allowed in heaven. Carnal pride, stubbornness and all other such traits must go.
Yes, we feel badly for the followers of this evangelist if they too must battle with the worst internal traits of carnality every day, and never know what it is to be cleansed from such vileness by the precious Blood of Christ.
BLJ: I have seen "holiness evangelists" that were no more sanctified than a blade of grass and the way they tried to lead the attendees into holiness was misleading and unbiblical. Yet, what could you expect from a person in a position of authority that had never taken the death route and died out. Now, their position of authority becomes a chain around them to hold them back from truth.
But, let us be honest ourselves! Do we not also have all too many in our own conservative holiness ranks who are living so far beneath their privileges in the gospel, as to be doing no better than the above-mentioned evangelist or his followers? It is the prayer of this writer that all who read this book and discover their carnal heart will seek the cleansing, purging, purifying power of the blood of Jesus and find complete deliverance through the ministry of the Holy Ghost.
BLJ: Let the prayer of the author be granted!
We, in the ranks of the second blessings holiness churches have people from the top echelons of leadership down to the most obscure followers, who battle daily with their carnality, sometimes suppressing it rather successfully, but are never delivered. They often become so accustomed to their carnal flare-ups that they fail to ask either God or the ones they have wronged to forgive them. Following this corrupt pattern, one could not possibly retain the first work of grace. This is one of the great reasons why there are so many in the holiness ranks who are not holy.
Jesus said of such persons: "And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." (Matt. 7:23). These deceived people supposed they were about the best Christians on earth because they worked miracles and cast out devils in Christ's Name, until Christ pronounced their doom. The purging of their own hearts of carnality is far more important than casting demons out of someone else.
"Burn, burn, O love! within my heart,
Burn fiercely night and day,
Till all the dross of earthly loves
Is burned, and burned away."
BLJ: Let our hearts be perfect in love which may sometimes cause us to proclaim a firey truth like lightening bolts from the sky.
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